Midterms: How can election groups get out the vote when just half of Americans say process is 'fair and open'?

In the 2016 presidential election, Randolph County, Georgia used nine election precincts to cast almost 2900 votes. Now, a consultant hired by the county wants to eliminate all but two of those precincts - a 78 percent reduction.
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – Helen Butler carefully avoids mentioning Russian hacking or other threats to election systems when she tries to register voters in Georgia. She doesn’t want to scare off people already doubting their vote will count.

“I’m concerned about anything that would dissuade voters from participating," said Butler, executive director of the Georgia Coalition for the Peoples Agenda.

As midterms approach, Butler, election officials and others face the challenge of persuading wary voters to go to the polls.

They're right to be concerned. Only about half of American voters believe the nation's elections are “fair and open,” according to a recent University of Virginia Center for Politics/Ipsos poll. And only 15 percent of those voters "strongly agree" with that.

“It’s pretty scary when voters don’t have faith that the government is running this process correctly and fairly," said Christy McCormick, vice chair of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. “Faith in how elections are run are critical to voter turnout, to the whole process of elections."

Kyle Kondik, who analyzes elections at the Center for Politics, agreed, “I don’t think there’s been a lot of positivity about American politics and our election system in general."

A report released last Thursday by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, cited several problems, including aging machines, a shortage of poll workers and cyberthreats.

Gale LuQuette, an attorney from Abbeville, Louisiana, has been worried about the vulnerability of election systems since officials started turning to electronic voting machines, including some without backup systems such as paper ballots.

These days, LuQuette also worries about cyberthreats.

“There’s too much evidence of the ability of third parties to hack the system, and unless those issues are addressed, then I don’t have faith in the system," said LuQuette, 47, who still plans to vote in November "because it’s my duty to do so."

LuQuette, a registered Democrat, said federal and state officials should better fund local elections and efforts to "protect the integrity of the systems.”

The Trump administration also hasn't paid enough attention to cyberthreats, LuQuette said. “They haven’t put as much or any effort into stopping it."

Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia Center on Politics discusses elections with reporters Aug. 28, 2018, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.(Photo11: Deborah Barfield Berry, USA TODAY)

McCormick, who has traveled the country talking about elections, said some voters have told her they aren't bothering to vote because they believe elections are being hacked or can't be trusted.

Russian hackers tried to breach election systems in at least 21 states in 2016, according to federal homeland security officials. Although no actual votes were changed, hackers broke into Illinois' voter registration database and stole some information.

McCormick said election officials are more vigilant than ever to ensure fair and open elections.

“There is no room for error,” she said.

The University of Virginia poll, which was conducted July 5-6, found what other surveys have shown – there’s a decline in institutional trust over the years, said Kondik.

According to the poll, 51 percent of respondents agreed elections are “fair and open,’’ while 43 percent disagreed. The online poll of 1,006 adults had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for the overall survey.

Kondick said there were some predictable partisan differences. Republicans tended to have more confidence in the system (68 percent) than Democrats (43 percent) and Independents (49 percent) did.

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“That’s probably largely a function of Democrats having lost the last election, particularly the way that they lost it in that their candidate lost in an upset and lost the election despite winning the popular vote," he said.

Election experts said there’s long been a lack of trust in the election system, particularly among minority voters in the South.

The Brennan Center for Justice has received reports of states not providing sufficient polling locations or of voters' concerns about the security of voting machines, said Myrna Pérez, deputy director of the center's Democracy Program.

“We as a country do not resource our elections well enough," said Pérez.

When those resources are low, she said, it often affects communities of colors most. “When there are already barriers in front of those folks and then you get it compounded with these resource problems, it leads to unequal access to the ballot box," Perez said.

Wayne Clark, who has been voting for at least 40 years, hasn’t lost faith in the election system. It’s the media covering elections he doesn’t trust.

“The press has gone way to the left – way too far,” said Clark, 59, a registered Republican and retired nurse from Oakdale, California. "They don’t give candidates a fair shake.”

Clark called press coverage of Donald Trump particularly "shameful."

“He is the president, whether you like it or not,'' he said. "He deserves some respect, and you all don’t give him an ounce of respect.”

Clark said he’s not worried about cyberthreats and plans to vote in November.

“They have not proven to me that the system was in danger of any fraud or anything,” he said.

Despite concerns about whether election systems are fair and open, Kondik said he expects there may be a higher than normal turnout this midterm.

“It seems like there’s a lot of interest in politics right now,” he said.

Kondik said the Democratic base has traditionally been less reliable during midterms in part because it’s mostly younger voters and minority voters who tend not to participate as much.

“However, we’ve also seen from polling and also from special election results that the Democratic base is pretty fired up basically because they’re mad at Trump,” he said.

Jonathan Apgar said he trusts that his vote will be counted accurately but has concerns about vote-suppression efforts, including voter ID laws, which he calls “groundless.”

“It’s all out in the open, but that is a major stain on our electoral system," said Apgar, a 34-year-old accountant who is not affiliated with a political party. “But I think that the vote counts themselves are probably there."

Apgar said he’s more concerned about user error with voting machines and poll worker mistakes, but he's sure there are systems in place to check that.

“I have confidence in my local government, and I have confidence in county government," he said. "I’m confident that my vote will be counted.”